The Star and The Spider
by Music and things
Summary: After five years away, Tori has returned home. Without Professor X by her side, she's unsure on how she'll be able to handle normal life. But with childhood friend, Peter Parker, guiding her way, she just might make it. Now if only she could convince Spider-man that he needs a partner... Eventual PP/OC. Rated T cause I have a potty mouth.


**Here we are. I wasn't planning on writing and fics again (I get distracted easily and then never finish anything) but then I came up with Victoria and really enjoyed her character so I couldn't help but put her down on paper. But let's get on with the show, shall we? I present, The Star and The Spider! (Honestly, that is the cheesiest fucking title ever. But whatever. I hope you like the story)**

Victoria watched the cars speed by. She buried her fingernails into her arms in an attempt to squash the nausea building up in her stomach. She closed her eyes and took in deep breaths. _You can do this._ She chanted to herself. _You can do this. You can do this. It's been five years. You're not twelve anymore. You can do this._ A loud honk jolted her out of her inner chanting.

She looked up at the man sitting in the driver's seat in front of her. He was burly with tanned skin and thick black hair that covered, well, everything. Typically a man like this would be the one screaming at you to get out of the road or cat calling you from a construction site but Steve wasn't like that. Despite his size and intimidating frown, he had the kindest eyes Tori had ever seen. She was struck by how different he was from her father. Her dad was blonde and had a typically handsome face. But he had never smiled the way Steve did. He had never laughed like Steve or sweep her up into a big hug like Steve always did when he saw her. Steve did all the things she had always wished her dad would. And she wasn't even related to him. Suffice to say, she liked Steve.

Her eyes flicked over to the women sitting beside Steven, her hand rubbing his knee gently. She was beaming, her eyes lighting up like the sun. It had been some time since Tori had seen her mom that happy. She smiled a bit, and reached over to play with her mother's dark brown hair. Tori looked a lot like her mom. They had the same impossible to deal with, curly, brown hair and round face. Although Victoria had inherited her father's gloomy, gray eyes that always looked bored, no matter how she actually felt at the time. Tori had always wanted her mom's eyes. It wasn't that they were particularly pretty, just a plain brown, but they always seemed to be smiling. No matter what.

Jenny tuned her head to look at her daughter. She beamed, ecstatic that her little girl was finally coming home.

"How are you feeling, sugar plum?"

"Fine. Just a little nervous. You're sure it's okay for me to come back? I mean, I don't wanna scare the boys or anything."

That's what was bothering her the most. She loved her new step-bothers to pieces, even if she had only actually seen them a few times before now. They were both so sweet and little. Sam was just four years old after all and Isaac had only just started the 4th grade. What if she lost control? She hadn't for some time now but the image of the knife pointed at her mother's throat had been seared into her brain for the past years.

Her mother smiled softly. "Sweety, those boys adore you and you love them. You would never hurt them. Besides, Professor Xavier himself said you were good to go. He even called you an inspiration to the younger students. You'll be fine."

"She'll be better than fine!" Tori looked up to find Steve staring at her through the rear view mirror, his eyes dancing with laughter. "If she's half the woman her mother is she'll be kicking ass and taking names and no one will be able to stop her!"

Jenny guffawed with her new husband, her snorting laugh reverberating in the car.

It always surprised Victoria just how much Steve was willing to accept her, even after he had learned about her… issues. He had never turned his back on her or her mother. When she told him, two months after he proposed to Jenny, he just shrugged his shoulders and said he always knew she was gifted. He just wondered why so few people seemed to see it too. She decided to love him after that, not like it was hard. In fact, it would have been near impossible _not_ to love the man. He was a giant teddy bear.

The car began to slow and Tori could feel the knots in her stomach tightening.

"Here we are!" Steve always seemed to be talking as if he thought everyone in the world was deaf. "Home sweet home! You better get ready Tori. I think the boys are planning on swamping you the minute you step through that door."

Tori gave him a pained smile in response. She sucked in a deep breath and got out of the car. The house looked the same as she remembered it. It was funny. She had expected her mother to at least paint it a new color since she had been gone. She made her way to the trunk of the car and was about to grab one of her bags when Steve pulled her away.

"No way kiddo. Today is your first day back and you're not spending it lugging a bunch of bags up the stairs."

"My hero." Tori placed the back of her hand to her forehead and feigned swooning. Steve let out a chuckle in response.

"Jen!" Victoria's mom popped up, from what seemed out of nowhere, almost immediately.

"What?"

"I need you to help me put the bags in my arms. I can't pick up the rest of them with my hands full."

Jenny complied and started to pile the assorted suitcases and duffle bags into her husband's waiting arms.

"Damn Tori!" He grunted under the weight of what accumulated to be five years of his stepdaughter's life. "What the hell do you have in here? Rocks?"

"Well you aren't exactly supposed to carry it all at once."

"Yeah, yeah. Just hurry up and get in the damn house so I can put all of this down."

She let out a snort of laughter and trotted up the steps into her new, or old, home. Right when she was about to open the door it swung ajar to revel two dark haired boys with huge toothy grins, near identical to their father's. The older one, Isaac, threw his arms around her and squeezed her torso until she could hardly breath.

"Hey little man. Why don't you give her time to settle down before you torture her to death." Steve shuffled in, pushing his three children aside in order to get up the stairs. "Tori, I'm going to put all of this in your room, 'kay? Jen is gonna make us some dinner. Do you want to unpack before or after that?"

"Uh, before." She managed to wheeze out. Isaac still had not relinquished his hold on her.

"Got it. Well, your things will be waiting for you when you finally manage to free yourself." Steve made his way to her room, chortling to himself the entire time.

Jen slipped into the house at that point, three twenty-dollar bills in hand. The girl babysitting the boys, a mousy looking fifteen year old, took the money and quickly left, not even pausing to say hello or goodbye. Tori frowned a bit. She didn't like the idea of someone so rude looking after her brothers.

Isaac tugged on her shirt, pulling her attention away from the strange girl.

"I'm so glad you're home!" he looked up at her, his impossibly dark eyes melting her heart.

"Me too, kiddo. Me too."

"Towee! Towee!" Victoria turned her head to look down at the little boy calling, or attempting to call, her name.

"Sammy! How's my soldier boy?" She scooped the four-year-old up into her arms and placed a purposely-loud and sloppy kiss on his forehead.

"Ew Towee!" He screeched and started to struggle, attempting to worm his way out of his stepsister's confining arms.

"Oh no you don't." She flipped him over her shoulder, her grip tightening. Dropping her baby brother would be a really bad way to start off her first day home. "What about you Isaac?"

"What about me?"

"Can you handle the… HUG MONTSER!?" She let out a roar. Isaac screeched and ran into the other room, Tori hot on his heels, her free arm open in an attempt to snatch him up. She chased him around the house, him screaming and her laughing like a maniac the whole time. But the game was soon ended when Sam started to pound on her back crying, "Put me down Towee! Put me down!"

Victoria chuckled and stopped running. "Alright, alright. No need to shout soldier boy. I'll put you down." She flipped him right way up and placed him gently on the ground. "Now, I gotta go unpack, but I'll be down soon, okay?

Sam nodded and flashed her his toothy grin. "Okay. See you soon Towee."

Isaac popped out from the recliner he was hiding behind. "Aw, you're leaving?"

"Just for a little while. I'll be down for dinner, and we can play more then."

"Okay. Well then, see you in a bit I guess. Just don't get lost or anything"

She laughed and ruffled his hair. "All right, I won't." She turned and started to make her way upstairs. She passed Steve on the way down the hall. He looked exhausted.

"You know you didn't have to carry all of them for me. Mom and I could have taken some."

"Yeah, but then I would be completely emasculated!" He cried out jokingly. She chuckled in response before finally arriving at her door.

"I'll be sure to pack less rocks with me next time." She flashed him a smile and slipped into her room.

It was almost exactly how she remembered it. The walls were lilac and covered in pictures of friends and paintings she had found online and had decided to print out using really crappy paper. Those were starting to fade. There was a bookcase pressed up against the side of a white bureau that was covered in old jewelry. On the opposite side was her bed, neatly made with what looked like newly bought covers. Next to that was an old desk, most of its surface taken up by the desktop computer that Steve had bought her a week ago as a welcome home gift. Other than the new computer, it was as if no one had step foot in the room since Tori had left.

Victoria began the long process of unpacking her bags and re-organizing the room. The old painting printouts were pulling down in favor of the many posters and art pieces she had been given over the past five years. The jewelry littering her bureau was pushed aside to make room for pictures of her friends. She had only gotten through two bags when she noticed him. Peter Parker. Just as always, his room was directly across from hers.

He appeared to be engrossed in some sort of math homework, his messy brown hair falling in front of his glasses. He kept trying to push it out of the way, all to no avail. She smiled. He was older now, but he sill hadn't changed.

She and Peter had been next-door neighbors, and subsequently best friends, since she and her parents moved to New York when she was 6. Back then they had been near inseparable and she remembered his Uncle often joking that they would get married one day. But her departure had brought an end to that. She had promised him they would keep in touch and she had really meant it. But she had been scared. Scared that if she continued to be his friend he would eventually find out about why she left in the first place and then reject her. It seemed easier to simply stop talking to him than risk that pain.

But now she was 17, not 12. Now she had complete control of herself. And now, she really needed a friend. So, she opened up her window and made the small leap to Peter's roof. Back in the day they had used a plank of wood to bridge their two windows together, but the gap between roofs was only about a foot and her legs were quite a bit longer now.

She rapped her knuckles against the glass. Peter's head snapped up, looking around for the noise. His eyes fell on her and he opened his mouth, only to close it before opening once more, seemingly lost for words. She knocked again and motioned for him to let her in. He leapt up and quickly pulled the window open.

"What – wh - what the hell are you doing here?"

"Still stutter when you're nervous I see." She flashed him an anxious grin.

"Victoria," He said, ignoring her comment. "What are you doing here? I thought you were at boarding school."

She winced. She had hoped he wouldn't ask that. It was a long shot, obviously, but a girl can dream. "Can I come in?"

He moved out of the way and she slipped into his bedroom. The first thing she noticed was an over abundance of pictures that all featured a blonde haired girl.

"Well?" Peter looked at her expectantly.

Tori let out a big sigh, thinking on how to answer him. She sat down on his bed, carefully putting the very expensive looking camera that had been resting there on his bedside table. She then turned and looked up at him. "You know my mom got re-married, right?"

"Yeah." He said slowly, not sure what that had to do with anything.

"Well, both she and Steve work full time and normally Steve's sister would look after his sons but she moved to Minnesota, so that's not really an option any more. And the boys are too young to look after themselves so mom and Steve need me to help take care of them. Plus mom is pregnant now and-"

"Wait, your mom is pregnant? But isn't she, like, 40?"

"37. So she's a little late in the game, yeah. But the doctor says she's healthy and so long as they keep a close eye on her, everything should work out fine."

"Oh. So you came back to take care of your stepbrothers."

"Yep."

Peter frowned. He didn't seem to quite believe her. Funny part was she was actually telling the truth. She hoped he would stop asking questions. She always hated lying, especially to him.

"So who's the girl in the pictures? Your girlfriend?" She asked, trying to change the subject.

His face turned a lovely shade of red as he started rubbing the back of his neck. "N-no. She's, uh, she's not my girlfriend."

"Oooh." Tori grinned. "So you're just stalking her then."

"I'm not stalking her! I-I have to take pictures for the- the school newspaper and she is featured a lot."

"And that's why you hung them on your walls?"

"I, well, I-I-I just, I mean-" He looked like she had just slapped him clear across the face. She was actually afraid he might start having a panic attack of some sort.

"Pete, calm down!" She laughed out. "I'm only teasing. So what's her name?"

"Gwen. Gwen Stacy." He plopped himself on his bed beside her. "And she is completely out of my league."

"Oh come on." She bumped her shoulder against his. "Any girl would be lucky to have you. You just need confidence."

He turned and resituated himself on the bed so he was facing her. "It's been five years since we've seen each other and yet we're already talking as if we're best friends."

"Is that a bad thing?" She didn't think it was but there was no guarantee Peter thought that. Maybe he didn't want to open up to some one so soon after seeing them for the first time in half a decade.

"No." He grinned at her. "I'm glad. Life hasn't been nearly as fun without you."

Before she could stop herself she was hugging Peter with all her might. He stiffened, unsure how to react to the sudden physical contact. After a few moments she pulled away, realizing she might have just ruined everything.

"Sorry." She muttered sheepishly. "It's just, I was so worried that you would hate me." He didn't answer. He seemed to be in shock. "I'll, uh, I'll just go. See you in school tomorrow." She hurried over to the window and started to climb out. She was about to make the jump to her house when Peter shouted for her.

"Wait!" She turned to look at him in surprise. "Do you want to walk to school together tomorrow? I could give you a run down of the school."

Tori flashed him a grin. "Yeah that would be awesome."

He beamed in response, and closed his window. She waved and clambered back into her own room.

She collapsed onto her bed and let out a content sigh. _Maybe I really can do this. I have my old room back, an awesome family and now I even have a friend._

"Toria! Dinner's ready!" Jenny called up the stairs to her daughter.

_I can do this._

**End of the chapter! I hope you all liked it. Just a quick warning, I am starting school in like two days, and I won't have a ton of time for this story. I'm going to try and update at least once a month. Hopefully as time goes on and I figure out a schedule I can up that to two. Also warning, Peter is still going to be with Gwen at least up until the second movie. There will be next to no romance between him and Victoria until very far in the future. So if you're hoping for a quick fluffy love story, this is not the fic for you. (Although I do have a nice little Harry/Victoria plot line in mind, so look forward to that.)**

**AND this story will be encompassing different parts of the Marvel universe, not just Spiderman. X-men and the Avengers will be involved. But if you know the X-men that you probably already guess that. And if you DON'T know X-men then brush up. They're pretty damn fun. (The Fantastic Four will not be involved. Why? Because I don't like them. They suck.)**

**Anywho, review please. Second chapter will be up by at least the end of September. Hopefully earlier.**


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